From Alex Saragosa, Terranuova, Italy
Thomas Lewton is left doubting that his dog considers him a being with a mind of his own. I don’t know about that, but my cat Dolcina, who lived 18 years, knew very well that humans have their own point of view on the world (14/21 December 2024, p 66).
Our house is in the country, and Dolcina often stayed outside all day and came home at night. To return, she used the door to the terrace, which was half-obscured by a semi-transparent curtain. Therefore, Dolcina could see us in the lighted room, but we couldn’t see her in the darkness outside and so wouldn’t know to open the door for her.
So the cat would climb along the mosquito net until her head was above the curtain, wait patiently for one of us to see her and stare at her, and jump down, confident that we would now let her in. In short, Dolcina realised that our view of the scenario was different from hers, and operated in such a way that her knowledge of being there waiting could be shared by us: a spontaneous experiment in cats’ capacity for “theory of mind”.
Advertisement
